Trai invites companies to set up pilot open Wi-Fi hotspots before national rollout

Indian telecom regulator has invited all companies, app providers and hardware or software providers, for setting up a pilot project of public wi-fi hotspotsGulveen Aulakh | ETTelecom | Updated: July 07, 2017, 20:37 IST

New Delhi: Indian telecom regulator has invited all companies, app providers and hardware or software providers, for setting up a pilot project of public Wi-Fi hotspots - which it calls as Public Data Offices (PDOs) - which will allow pay-as-you-go 'sachet sized' wi-fi facilities priced between Rs 2 and Rs 20, making internet access affordable for the common public.

PDOs will be akin to the public calling offices (PCOs) that connected all of India before the advent of low cost mobile phones and low cost telecom services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said Friday, while issuing the broad objectives of the pilot program, the guidelines and pre-requisites for companies who want to participate.

"TRAI invites all interested entities to be a part of this Pilot to establish nation-wide, pay-as-you-go PDOs," the regulator said. “The products available for consumption should begin from “sachet-sized”, i.e. low denominations ranging from INR 2 to INR 20, etc,” the Trai added.

The pilot will help in identifying the positives and problem areas before national proliferation of such hotspots.

The vision of this initiative is to establish an open architecture based Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI), which will allow users to do one-time enrollment into the service through KYC and mobile one time password, and access through purchase of sachet sized data packs.

This will bring in new customers and boost the consumption of data by the price sensitive Indian customer who rations her cellular data usage, the regulator added. Participants have been asked to send their details by July 25.

Through this plan, the broad objective of the regulator is to have multiple hotspots available for the public to use at multiple locations across the country, allowing data use in last mile connectivity.

The regulator also envisions that the hotpots will be able to offload data pressure from existing telecom networks given that only limited number of towers or routers can be added at every locality, enough to support the growing data usage owing to low cost tariffs. The hotspot plan will also take the total number of hotspots in India up from the present 31,000, abysmally lower than 10 million in US and 13 million in France.

"Overall, these suggestions encourage the PDOs to become bustling centers of economic activity, where consumption of data for the average Indian becomes as common as consuming a cup of hot chai," the regulator said.

The pilot program will aim to prove that multi-provider, inter-operable and collaborative model increases the overall innovation in the system, dismantles monopolies and encourages passing of benefits to end user. The pilot will also test out integrated payment methods such as coupons - purchased using cash by user or gifted to user – credit or debit cards, net banking, e-wallets, and Unified Payments Interface.

The regulator will issue WANI Technology Architecture document within three to four days, which will provide the necessary technology and architecture for allowing multi-provider, interoperable system across the country.

Trai aims to provide a simplified, consistent experience across hotspots from various providers, which would mean unbundling authentication, payment and accounting from hardware and software running on the access point.

This will allow small entrepreneurs such as tea shops, to set up and maintain access points whereas device manufacturers, payment companies, internet and telecom service providers and consumer internet companies can provide the remaining pieces to set up PDOs.

The proposal to set up open public wi-fi hotspots comes after the regulator issued recommendation on “Proliferation of Broadband through Public Wi-Fi Networks” in March this year. The regulator had recommended setting up public Wi-Fi hotspots, reducing import duty on Wi-Fi equipment, infrastructure sharing and authentication of the users through eKYC process.

It had also suggested that Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) should be allowed to provide public Wi-Fi services without obtaining any licence, but should be subject to telecom department prescribed registration requirements, including ensuring that e-KYC, authentication and record keeping of customers, devices and PDOAs enlisted with the PDOs.

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